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Jailed Pussy Riot members nominated for Sakharov Prize

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20120914/175953889.htmlThree jailed members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot were nominated by the European Parliament for the prestigious Sakharov prize.The European Parliament

Jailed Pussy Riot members nominated for Sakharov Prize

Feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, sit in a glass cage at a courtroom in Moscow in August. The three, who were convicted of hooliganism, have been nominated by the European Parliament for the prestigious Sakharov Prize.(Photo: Mikhail Metzel, AP)

The prize, established by the parliament in 1988, is named after Soviet human rights activist Andrei Sakharov.

The first winners, named in 1988, were South African leader Nelson Mandela and Soviet dissident Anatoly Marchenko, who died in prison in 1986.

The three Pussy Riot members -- Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29 -- have been sentenced to two years in prison for singing a profane "punk prayer" against President Vladimir Putin in Moscow's main Orthodox cathedral.

They are in jail awaiting a ruling by a Moscow court Oct. 1 on their appeal.

The three were nominated for the Sakharov Prize by German parliament member Werner Schulz. Also nominated are Belarus human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and members of the Rwandan and Iranian opposition, RIA Novosti reports.

The candidates will be officially presented in Brussels in September and the winner will be chosen in December in Strasbourg, France, the official seat of the European Parliament.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev says he thinks the prison sentences against the punk group members should be suspended.

"A suspended sentence, taking into account time they have already spent, would be entirely sufficient," Medvedev said this week in televised remarks to members of the ruling United Russia party, Reuters reports.

But the former president, who switched jobs with Putin in May, declared he's not supporting the band. "I am sick over what they did, of their public appeal and the hysteria that surrounds them," he says.